William Barnsley Allen

He was hit four times by shell fragments, suffered two fractured ribs, and still refused to stop treating the wounded. Only after the last casualty had been dressed and removed did Captain William Barnsley Allen report his own injuries. It was an extraordinary act of medical courage, but it was only one episode in the wartime career of a Sheffield doctor who would earn the Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross and Bar, and a Mention in Despatches during the First World War.

Major William Barnsley Allen VC, DSO, MC and Bar was one of the most highly decorated medical officers of the British Army in the First World War. A graduate of the University of Sheffield and an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps, Allen repeatedly placed himself in extreme danger to reach, treat and evacuate wounded soldiers under artillery fire. The University of Sheffield describes its 1914 medical graduate as the most decorated British medical officer of the war.

Born in Sheffield on 8 June 1892, Allen was educated at St Cuthbert's College, later Worksop College, before studying medicine at the University of Sheffield. He graduated MB ChB in 1914 and had been a member of the Sheffield University Officers' Training Corps. His medical career had barely begun when Europe went to war.

Within days of Britain's entry into the First World War, Allen entered military medical service. The London Gazette recorded William Barnsley Allen, M.B., as appointed Lieutenant in the 3rd West Riding Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, with effect from 8 August 1914. The notice appeared in the Gazette of 22 September 1914.

By 1915 Allen had been promoted to Captain and was serving on the Western Front. His work brought him into close contact with artillery formations, where a medical officer might have to leave the relative shelter of a dressing station and move directly into ground being swept by shell fire. Allen repeatedly did exactly that.

His first major gallantry decoration was the Military Cross.

The Military Cross citation, published in the supplement to The London Gazette on 26 September 1916, recorded that Allen had been summoned after an artilleryman was severely wounded. To reach the casualty, he crossed ground that was being heavily shelled. The citation also noted another occasion on which he carried out similarly courageous medical work under heavy shell fire. Contemporary medical reporting associated these actions with 14 and 20 August 1916.

Only weeks later came the action that made William Barnsley Allen one of the best known medical recipients of the Victoria Cross.

On 3 September 1916, while Allen was attached to the 246th West Riding Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, near Mesnil on the Somme, German artillery suddenly opened fire on a battery position as gun detachments were unloading high explosive ammunition. A shell struck a limber, detonating ammunition and causing a number of casualties.

Allen did not seek cover.

He ran across exposed ground under heavy shell fire and immediately began treating the wounded. The official citation stated that his prompt action saved men from bleeding to death. During approximately the first hour of his work, Allen was struck four times by shell fragments. One fragment fractured two of his ribs.

He continued working.

He did not report his wounds and did not leave the casualties. Allen remained at the battery until the wounded men had been dressed and safely removed. He then went to another battery to treat a wounded officer. Only after completing that task did he return to his dugout and report that he had himself been injured.

For this action he received the Victoria Cross for "most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty." The official Gazette identifies him as Captain William Barnsley Allen, M.C., M.B., Royal Army Medical Corps. His award appears in London Gazette issue 29802, with the printed supplement carrying the date 26 October 1916. The Gazette's modern electronic index associates the issue with 24 October 1916.

Allen's Victoria Cross did not mark the end of his front-line gallantry.

In 1917 he again distinguished himself during an intense bombardment involving both high explosive and gas shells. His subsequent Bar to the Military Cross represented a second award of the MC.

The citation describes Allen leaving an Advanced Dressing Station to search for wounded men during the bombardment. Learning that casualties remained in a remote part of the town, he went out, found them and supervised their evacuation back to the dressing station. After returning, he learned that another party had not yet come in and was preparing to go out again when they finally appeared.

By then Allen had himself been seriously affected by gas. Even so, he continued performing his duties until his condition finally forced his evacuation to a Casualty Clearing Station. The Bar to his Military Cross was formally recorded in The London Gazette of 26 September 1917, which names "Capt. William Barnsley Allen, V.C., M.C., R.A.M.C." under the heading "Awarded a Bar to the Military Cross."

Allen returned to duty and eventually held the acting rank of Major. As the war entered its final months, he again came under heavy fire while carrying out the work for which he had already been repeatedly decorated.

Between 11 and 14 October 1918, during the fighting west of Saulzoir for the River Selle line, Allen was responsible for organising the collection and evacuation of wounded men from ground subjected to continuing hostile shell fire.

His Distinguished Service Order citation praised his fearless initiative in organising the recovery of casualties and described how his example, energy and disregard for danger enabled large numbers of helpless wounded men to be moved from exposed positions. Once again, Allen continued until he was himself overcome by gas. For these actions he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

The pattern running through Allen's decorations is striking. His gallantry was not based on a single extraordinary moment. Again and again, his citations describe a doctor deliberately moving towards wounded men while artillery fire, exploding ammunition or gas made the surrounding ground increasingly dangerous.

He was also Mentioned in Despatches. A London Gazette supplement published in July 1919 identifies him as Captain and Acting Major W. B. Allen, VC, DSO, MC, MB, Royal Army Medical Corps, attached to the 1/3rd West Riding Field Ambulance. Unlike his Victoria Cross, Military Cross, Bar to the Military Cross and Distinguished Service Order, the Mention in Despatches did not carry a comparable narrative gallantry citation. It nevertheless added another official recognition to an already exceptional wartime record.

By the end of the First World War, Allen had progressed from a newly qualified Sheffield doctor to one of the most decorated medical officers of his generation. He had earned the Military Cross, a Bar to the Military Cross, the Victoria Cross and the Distinguished Service Order, as well as being Mentioned in Despatches. His wartime service also brought the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, with the Mention in Despatches represented by the appropriate oak-leaf emblem on the Victory Medal ribbon.

His rank requires some care in telling his story. Allen was a Captain when he performed the action that earned the Victoria Cross in September 1916. By the later stages of the war he was serving as an Acting Major. Major became the highest rank by which he was subsequently recorded and is the appropriate rank for his overall biographical title, but it should not be projected backwards onto his VC action.

After the war Allen remained connected with the Royal Army Medical Corps. Later accounts record service in India and subsequently Aden, although the precise chronology of these post-war appointments is less firmly documented online than his wartime gallantry. His health had been repeatedly damaged by wounds and gas exposure during the conflict, and later illness further affected his military career.

He eventually left active military service in the early 1920s and returned to civilian medicine. The war, however, had left lasting physical consequences. Contemporary and later accounts describe continuing ill health, including the effects of his wartime injuries and illnesses contracted during overseas service.

Allen died at Bracklesham Bay, Sussex, on 27 August 1933, aged only 41. The National Army Museum records that his death resulted from an opium overdose. At the subsequent inquest, evidence was heard that Allen had been using drugs in an attempt to deal with severe insomnia and ill health. The coroner returned a verdict of death by misadventure rather than deliberate self-harm.

His life had been short, but his military medical record was remarkable.

Allen's legacy survives particularly strongly in Sheffield. The University of Sheffield continues to identify Major William Barnsley Allen VC, DSO, MC and Bar among its notable alumni and commemorates him as a 1914 medical graduate whose wartime service made him the most decorated British medical officer of the First World War. In 2022 he was also included in new interpretation panels installed beside the University's First World War memorial in Firth Court.

A contemporary image of Allen also survives in the form of a Gallaher cigarette card from the Great War Victoria Cross Heroes series, preserving the face of the young Royal Army Medical Corps officer whose name had become associated with extraordinary courage under fire.

Yet the citations remain the clearest memorial.

For the Military Cross, Allen crossed heavily shelled ground because a wounded artilleryman needed a doctor.

For the Victoria Cross, he ran into a shell-struck battery position, was wounded four times, suffered fractured ribs, treated every casualty and only then reported his own injuries.

For the Bar to the Military Cross, he went out during a high explosive and gas bombardment to find and evacuate wounded men, continuing even after being seriously gassed.

For the Distinguished Service Order, he organised the removal of helpless wounded soldiers from ground under persistent enemy shell fire until gas once again overcame him.

William Barnsley Allen's distinction was therefore not simply that he possessed an exceptional group of decorations. It was that the surviving citations tell the same story repeatedly. When wounded men were lying under fire, Allen went towards them.

That is why Major William Barnsley Allen VC, DSO, MC and Bar remains one of the outstanding medical gallantry figures of the First World War.